Exemplary aspects of the present invention relate to a droplet discharge device to discharge droplets to a workpiece, a device to maintain the discharge performance of a head, a method to maintain the discharge performance of a head, a method to manufacture an electro-optical device, an electro-optical device and an electronic apparatus.
A droplet discharge device is often used as a drawing system. The drawing system discharges droplets to a workpiece by an ink jet method. The drawing system is sometimes used for manufacturing an electro-optical device, such as a flat panel display.
The droplet discharge device that discharges minute droplets by an ink jet system has a head to discharge droplets. The head is required to discharge minute droplets to a workpiece stably and accurately. Thus, a phenomenon of the clogging of plural nozzles in a head must be prevented to ensure the stable and accurate discharging of minute droplets. There has been proposed a technique (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-95126 (p. 5, FIG. 9) in which in order to prevent nozzle clogging, cleaning treatment is carried out for the nozzle surface of a head by discharging droplets from the nozzles and, if necessary, perform suction on the nozzles.